Toronto’s crowded mayoral race is deadlocked in its early stages, with a new Mainstreet Research poll showing council veterans Josh Matlow, Ana Bailão and Olivia Chow, and former police chief Mark Saunders running neck-and-neck some two weeks after nominations opened.
With still over two months until the June 26 vote, the four candidates have emerged as the top contenders for the mayor’s chair, the poll shows.
Coun. Matlow, a self-described “pragmatic progressive,” has the support of 18.1 per cent of decided and leaning voters, followed by Bailão — a close ally to former mayor John Tory — at 16.8, ex-NDP MP Chow at 16.2 and Saunders at 12.6. There’s a three-way tie for first as the difference between Matlow, Bailão and Chow is within the poll’s margin of error of +/- 3.5 per cent.